Hi from Mary of Owlhaven.net

Cheer Winner

Owlhaven — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:37:18 +0000

The winner of the Cheer detergent giveaway is commenter # 47- Allie Zirkle at Life in the Z Lane. Congrats, Allie!!

All about cookbooks

Owlhaven — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:43:39 +0000

I have a friend named Ree, and she has a brand new cookbook. I know that almost everyone already knows and loves her, but after meeting and hanging out with her husband Marlboro Man and two of their kids in the Dominican Republic, I feel a special fondness for her. Ladd is the real deal, a genuinely nice guy, and their kids are sweet, polite and loads of fun. That doesn’t happen by accident.

This summer Ree further endeared herself to me by emailing me, excited about my cookbook, and telling me she’d bought a copy. I was in the process of sending out review copies to various bloggers, and would have given her a copy for free. But she beat me to it. Bless the woman. I’m waiting for my copy of her book to arrive, but if it is anything like her blog, it will be great. She’s currently blogging about her book tour, so check it out!

Speaking of cookbooks, mine is at Target.com now, as well as Amazon, Borders, and CBD. If you want to buy it the old-fashioned way– ie, walk into an actual store and come out with a book in your hands –your best bet is Barnes and Noble. (You can enter your zip code on the website to make sure it is in stock at a store near you.)

And if you’ve already read FAMILY FEASTS, would you consider leaving a review at amazon.com? I think when a person writes a book, they pour a little of their soul into it. Feedback is treasured, and I am truly grateful when people take time to weigh in.

Sunday

Owlhaven — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:01:30 +0000

For those of you who assume…

Owlhaven — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:00:59 +0000

…that I have it all together around here, let me reassure you with just one tiny example. (My apologies if you’ve heard this one already! )

A good two months after our two older-adopted girls came home from Ethiopia, one of them brought me into her room, tugged at the bedsheets, and said in puzzlement, “These? Change?”

And I realized the poor kid honestly wondered if people ever change the sheets in America.

Housekeeping standards in 3rd world countries apparently being higher than mine.

So do not feel discouraged by random posts from which you might assume that my life is prettier or more pulled together than yours. It’s not. Even if I do manage to decoupage a lampshade every now and then.

How to: Fixing a broken lamp shade

Owlhaven — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:04:10 +0000

I have a small lamp on my bedside table. One day it fell on the floor, causing the lamp shade to rip away from the ring at the top edge where it was attached to the lamp. I thought about buying a new shade. But the other day when buying Modge Podge and pretty paper for a Christmas craft, I wondered if I could decoupage paper onto the shade to repair it. I decided to give it a shot.

I began by using clear packing tape to tape the broken shade back onto the metal ring at the top edge. Because of the rips in the shade, it was hard to get it all smooth. But the tape did a pretty decent job of holding the shade in its original position.

I then began gluing randomly shaped pieces of heavy paper to the outside of the shade. There’s a lot of green and brown in our bedroom, so I went with those colors. I also added some papers that had deep purple accents, for interest. Before adhering each sheet of paper, I trimmed it to fit in the area where I wanted it to go. Then I put Modge Podge both on the old shade in the space where the new paper would go, and on the back of the new paper.

Once the new paper was stuck onto the shade pretty well, I then put a layer of Modge Podge on the pretty side of the new paper, paying special attention to the edges, so that the new paper would adhere well to the shade. Gradually I worked my way around, randomly placing paper until the entire shade was covered, and every edge was coated with Modge Podge.

Since I don’t know how heat proof my shade repair job will be, I am using a very low-watt fluorescent bulb in the fixture, and plan to use this lamp only when I am in the room. The new covering is much more interesting than the original shade, and I am really happy with how it looks.

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On this day last year I wrote about a room full of hope

Technorati Tags: lampshade, Modge Podge, repair

Can anyone relate…

Owlhaven — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:02:25 +0000

..to this? I do so deeply that it makes my heart ache…

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Last year on this day I was in the Dominican Republic meeting Maicol. This week another group of bloggers is going to see Compassion’s work in El Salvador

Recipe: Spaghetti Frittata

Owlhaven — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:29:54 +0000

No one really wants to waste food, especially when you’re trying eat affordably. However, there are times when you just can’t face another meal of leftovers. I often avoid food burnout by sticking leftovers into the freezer the day the food is made. That way I can wait a week or two before I serve it again. I know there are people all over the world who eat the same thing every single meal, but my family tends to be happiest about a food if it’s been awhile since we’ve last had it.

Last night we had spaghetti in the fridge that needed to be eaten. I didn’t want it to go to waste, but frankly, I was less than enthused. This frittata turned leftover spaghetti into something that looked and tasted decided UN-leftover-ish.

Spaghetti Frittata

Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 40 minutes

4 tablespoons butter
1 medium white or yellow onion, sliced into long slivers
2-3 cups of leftover spaghetti with meat sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon fresh basil
2 teaspoons salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup grated mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice onion and peel garlic. Put butter and slivered onions into a large skillet on medium high heat. A cast iron skillet is best, because then you’ll be able to bake it right in the skillet. Cook, stirring every 2 or 3 minutes, until onions are soft and are getting some nice browned bits. If onions start to blacken before they are soft, turn the heat down a little.

While the onions are cooking, in a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, minced garlic, salt and fresh basil (or substitute 2 teaspoons dried basil.) Zap leftover spaghetti in the microwave until hot. This step is not essential but it will cut 5 or 10 minutes off the baking time. You can use any leftover spaghetti. Mine had ground beef and traditional tomato sauce.

When the onions have some nice browned bits, remove skillet from heat. At this point, you can transfer the onions to an oven safe 8 inch casserole dish (round if you want pie-shaped servings). Or if you are using a cast iron skillet, just leave the onions right there in the skillet.

Spread the onions out evenly. Add the warmed spaghetti right on top of the onion mixture, again spreading it out evenly. Pour egg mixture evenly over all. Sprinkle cheese on top. Last of all, add a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, until egg in the center is set and cheese is nicely browned.

Garnish with additional fresh basil, if desired. And there you have it– leftovers, but not! My family ate this enthusiastically. Maybe yours would too.

Cheer Detergent Giveaway

Owlhaven — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:48:11 +0000

Just a reminder: the Cheer giveaway ends at 5 PM on Thursday, so head on over here and enter if you’d like a chance to win a free bottle of detergent!

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On this day last year I was arriving in the Dominican Republic.

A Day and a List

Owlhaven — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:24:48 +0000

To-Do list scrawled in a spiral notebook on a Sunday night, long enough to wrap around the block. Monday, it says. Looking with the eye of reality, I add a dash, and then the word Wednesday. Monday-Wednesday. It is grace I am giving myself, permission to not complete the whole kaboodle in a day.

Monday morning I rise and greet the day. And my list. No need to wrack my brain for what’s important. It is all there, right down to ‘rock the 4 year old’. In among the normal school-day happenings (science, math, writing, reading, and an occasional jog around the house for a kid whose brain needs some air) I weave bits of my list. A two minute phone call is shoe-horned in as kids scratch notes in science journals. Compassion-kid letters are written sentence by sentence as I check math and hear the 7 year old read. The buzz of my phone connects me via text-message with my kids who are away. By lunchtime, working bit by bit, I’ve even managed to clean off my ‘desk’ (aka, the heap of papers near my corner of the couch).

In the afternoon, with a satisfying chunk of my list crossed off, I gather two of my children to go buy tennis shoes. They glow at the unexpected treat. It is an errand I have been meaning to do for at least a week. One grew 2 shoe sizes over the summer, and the other has a hole ALL the way through the bottom of one shoe.

Inside Wal-Mart, blessedly unhurried, we peruse the shoes. Find winners. Wander through the food aisles to scoop up $0.40/lb frozen turkeys (limit 2) and $1.50/lb butter. A blaring announcement over the loudspeaker is happy serendipity: large bags of chocolate bars have been marked down to 25 cents each. I grab two bags, thinking they will do quite nicely for birthday treats.

Bursting in the door at home, happy children show dad shiny shoes. “Thanks for the shoes, Dad!” they chorus, coached by me in the car on the ride home. Dad admires, taking pleasure in seeing his children nicely outfitted. “Tell your mom thanks too. She’s the one who noticed you needed shoes.”

He and I talk about our daughter’s pending 5th birthday, and turn to ask her if she’d like to go out for her birthday dinner tonight. We have a tradition of taking each child out for dinner alone sometime during their birthday month. She eagerly agrees. I get home-staying children settled with dinner and a movie, in the care of 17 and 15 year old brothers. Kisses all around and we head off– to Red Robin, per our little one’s preference.

She’s in bliss, slurping up strawberry lemon-aid and cheese sticks and corn dogs and the undivided attention of both mom and dad. At the tail end of dinner she is surrounded by waiters, who hand her ice cream and tell her to stand on her seat so they can give a loud clapping rendition of the birthday song.

“Were you scared?” we ask her when they leave.

“Not very much,” she says, serene, happily dipping spoon into sundae. On the way out the door she carefully hands me her leftover lemon-aid, to better free her hands to receive the balloon that she knows also comes with with dinner.

Quiet ride home. PJ’s and stories and bedtime kisses for all the younger ones. Then off to bed they trundle. In the sudden quiet, I realize I’m tired. Really tired.

I’m determined to do one last bit of my list, but am fading fast. My husband tugs papers from my hands and heads to the bedroom to copy papers on my behalf. A lesser man might simply say do it tomorrow, but he senses my need to finish, and steps in to make it so. My 15 year old son brings me a glass of water, ice crushed, not cubed. My 17 year old fiddles with my Pandora and soon my favorite songs are playing.

Enough. For today I have done enough.

Now rest.

Christmas Ideas?

Owlhaven — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:11:51 +0000

I got a couple of review items in the mail from Team Mom recently that I wanted to mention in case you are looking for something fun for a child for Christmas. (And who of us isn’t at this time of year?)

The first item is the Mythbusters Weird World of Water. This science kit is one of three– the others are called Power of Air Pressure and Forces of Flight. The Weird World of Water contains several different experiments related to water, including a water tornado and a rocket that you can launch. Good fun.

The second item is The Magnificent Manicure Kit. This one puts a decidedly ‘girly’ spin on science, containing supplies to make a mud bath, bath salts, and lotion. The kit explains the science behind these products as well.

These kits are for kids ages 8 and up, retail for around $20 each, and might be just the ticket for the science-minded kid who likes his — or her — learning to be hands-on.

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What interesting toys have you seen lately? I am very much in need of ideas!